NASA Langley Kicks Off Summer of Innovation With Special Saturday Event

HAMPTON, Va., June 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hampton Roads middle school students have a rare opportunity this weekend as NASA's Langley Research Center celebrates the end of the school year with the start of NASA's Summer of Innovation at the Virginia Air & Space Center.

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Middle school students (rising 6th, 7th and 8th graders) and their parents will receive free exhibit admission to the downtown Hampton museum, Saturday, June 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It's part of NASA's Summer of Innovation, which is a multi-faceted, intensive middle school science, technology, engineering and mathematics project.

Participants will also have the chance to meet former astronaut Susan Kilrain, experience "Hubble 3D" in the IMAX movie theatre and participate in many other hands-on activities. They can also register to win prizes, including an iPod Touch, IMAX tickets, Busch Gardens season passes and an out of this world science camp called "Exploring with NASA."

Susan Kilrain is a veteran of two space shuttle missions and has logged more than 471 hours in space. She flew as a pilot on STS-83 (April 4-8, 1997) and STS-94 (July 1-17, 1997). She retired from NASA's Astronaut Office in December, 2002.

NASA's Summer of Innovation activities at NASA Langley's official visitors center include presentations by Kilrain at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., free "Hubble 3D" IMAX tickets to the first 500 middle school students and their parents, a special look at the science of NASA in sports, the opportunity to build a spaghetti bridge and see if it survives "the test of the destruction," a chance to register to participate in a simulation that puts visitors in lunar landing mission control, and learning how astronauts exercise in space.

"Hubble 3D" offers an inspiring and unique look into the Hubble Space Telescope's legacy and highlights its profound impact on the way we view the universe and ourselves. It features the crew of Atlantis STS-125 and the space walking astronauts who performed the final upgrade to the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most difficult tasks in NASA's history. "Hubble 3D" is the seventh space film produced by IMAX.

For additional information about NASA Langley, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/langley

For additional information about the Virginia Air & Space Center, visit:

http://www.vasc.org

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SOURCE NASA